Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/11



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Preliminary investigations indicate that there are about 500 lakes in Oregon that our people have seen fit to identify by names. These lakes vary in size and importance from fine bodies of water, clear and amid delightful surroundings, to shallow desert ponds of highly mineralized solution that literally dry up and blow away with summer winds.

Oregon has excellent examples of every form of lake enumerated by the physical geographer. Her lakes are important economically as well as from a scenic and recreational point of view. They furnish abundant supplies of water for human consumption, for power development, irrigation and mining, and it is difficult to conceive of more beautiful spots for camping and fishing than on the shores of some of the lakes of the mountain ranges of the state. They provide an attractive field for study.

In general a lake is an inland body of standing water somewhat larger than a pool or pond. In the west the words pool and pond are seldom used, and the word lake is generally employed to include even very small bodies of water. The term is also applied to the widened parts of river and sometimes to bodies of water which lie along the coast, even when they are at sea level and are directly connected with the sea.